Over the last decade or so, businesses have begun to install enterprise networks with one or more local area networks in order to allow their employees to share data and improve work efficiency. To further improve work efficiency, various enhancements have added to local area networks. One enhancement is remote wireless access, which provides an important extension in forming a wireless local area network (WLAN).
A WLAN supports communications between wireless stations (STAs) and Access Points (APs). Normally, each AP independently operates as a relay station by supporting communications between wireless stations of a wireless network and resources of a wired network. Hence, the APs are designed to operate autonomously, with each AP maintaining sufficient intelligence to control its own connections with STAs. As a result, conventional WLANs are subject to a number of disadvantages.
For instance, conventional WLANs are unable to effectively respond to man-in-the-middle attacks, especially where the attacker impersonates an AP by sending deauthentication messages to a targeted STA. Moreover, since each AP is designed to operate autonomously, the network administrator needs to separately configure individual APs, a major undertaking when a large number of APs are required in order to provide complete coverage at a site.